This invention relates to cleaning apparatus for industrial use.
There have generally been known the following two kinds of cleaning apparatus for industrial use adapted to wash target objects hung from hangers which are in turn suspended from a conveyor means, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 3-143930 (herein referred to as Prior Art Example One) and Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 4-91480 (herein referred to as Prior Art Example Two). Prior Art Example One may be characterized as having suspending means attached to a chain of a conveyor means and using chuck means at lower ends of the suspending means to simultaneously deliver a plurality of target objects to rotary means for individual washing machines and to the conveyor means. Prior Art Example Two may be characterized as hanging target objects from hangers which are suspended at equal intervals from a chain of a conveyor means and causing the target objects to move upward and downward as the chain moves such that they can be immersed in a washing tank. Example One may appear to have high efficiency because a plurality of target objects are processed at once. In fact, however, a large number of target objects can be processed more efficiently by hanging them individually from the conveyor means according to Example Two because they are sequentially washed as they are transported rhythmically, or intermittently at a constant frequency. On the other hand, methods according to Example Two require target objects to be moved up and down in order to immerse them in water or ozone water inside a tank. The result of washing by this method is not always good because there are situations where a target object fails to be adequately immersed in the liquid in the tank. Additionally, apparatus according to Example Two tend to be large because they must include means for moving target objects up and down.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide cleaning apparatus for industrial use which are not only capable of cleaning a large number of target objects efficiently but also improving the quality of the cleaned objects.
It is another object to provide such apparatus which can be made compact.